MINERVA Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes V2.0-2008.pdf

7/29/2019 MINERVA Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes V2.0-2008.pdf

1/94

Technical Guidelinesfor Digital Cultural ContentCreation Programmes

MINERVA TG 2.0 22-12-2008 13:46 Pagina 1


2/94



3/94

Technical Guidelinesfor Digital Cultural ContentCreation Programmes

Version 2.0: September 2008



4/94

General co-ordination

Rossella Caffo (MinervaEC Project Manager)Antonella Fresa (MinervaEC Technical Coordinator)Pier Giacomo Sola (MinervaEC Organisation Manager)

Editorial committeeVersion 2.0 was edited by Kate Fernie (Consultant, UK) with theassistance of Giuliana De Francesco (Ministero per i Beni e le AttivitCulturali, IT) and David Dawson (Wiltshire Heritage Museum, UK) for theMINERVA-eC project.

Version 1.0 of this document was edited by Pete Johnston (UKOLN).

Web version

Designdue_paveseGeo Graphic sdf

MINERVA eC Project 2008



5/94

Contributors

The contributors to Version 2.0 include: Brian Kelly, UKOLN (UK); NickPoole, Collections Trust (UK); Tom Morgan, Museum Copyright Group andNational Portrait Gallery (UK); Maria Teresa Natale, MinervaEC project (IT);Susan Hazan, Israel Museum (IS); Mary Rowlatt, consultant (UK); RobDavies, MDR Partners / EuropeanaLocal project (UK); Stefanos Kollias,National Technical University of Athens (GR); Wendy Sudbury (UK); AndyPowell, Eduserve (UK); Karla Youngs, TASI (UK); Paolo Auer, Ente per lenuove tecnologie, lenergia e lambiente ENEA(IT); Stefano Casati, Istitutoe museo di storia della scienza(IT); Andrea DAndrea, Universit di NapoliLOrientale (IT); Pierluigi Feliciati, Universit d Macerata (IT); FrancescaKlein, Archivio di Stato di Firenze (IT); Franco Lotti, Consiglio nazionaledelle ricerche, Istituto di fisica applicata Nello Carrara (IT); Cristina

Magliano, Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico delle biblioteche italianee per le informazioni bibliografiche (IT); Gianna Megli, BibliotecaNazionale Centrale di Firenze (IT); Anna Maria Tammaro, Universit diParma (IT); Milena Dobreva, University of Strathclyde (UK).

The contributors to Version 1.0 of this document included: Eelco Bruinsma,Consultant, NL; Rob Davies, MDR Partners / PULMAN Project, UK; DavidDawson, MLA, UK; Bert Degenhard Drenth, Adlib Information Systems /EMII-DCF Project, NL; Giuliana De Francesco, Ministero per i beni e leattivit culturali, IT; Muriel Foulonneau, Relais Culture Europe / EMII-DCFProject, FR; Gordon McKenna, mda / EMII-DCF project, UK; Paul Miller,UKOLN, UK; Maureen Potter, ERPANET Project, NL; Jos Taekema, Digital

Erfgoed Nederland, NL and Chris Turner, MLA, UK.

This document is based primarily on four sources.

the NOF-digitise Technical Standards and Guidelines (Version 5, February2003), that were developed on behalf of the UK New OpportunitiesFund (NOF), by UKOLN, University of Bath, in association withResource: The Council for Museums, Archives & Libraries (now knownas MLA). .

additional information provided to NOF-digitise projects in support ofthe Standards and Guidelines by the NOF-digitise Technical AdvisoryService, operated for NOF by UKOLN and the Arts and Humanities Data

Service (AHDS), in the form of the programme manual, briefing papersand FAQs. and .

the Framework Report (September 2003), published by the EuropeanMuseums Information Institute Distributed Content Framework(EMII-DCF) project, particularly the Data Capture Model in Chapter 16..

the Good Practice Handbook(Version 1.2, November 2003), developed bythe Minerva project (Working Group 6). . DCC Diffuse standards registry, .

5



6/94

It also draws on a number of other sources:

The Institute of Museum and Library Services Framework of Guidancefor Building Good Digital Collections

The NINCH Guide to Good Practice in the Digital Representation andManagement of Cultural Heritage Materials,

Research Libraries Group Cultural Materials Initiative:Recommendations for Digitizing for RLG Cultural Materials,

Research Libraries Group Cultural Materials Initiative: DescriptionGuidelines

Canadian Heritage Standards and Guidelines for Digitisation Projects

Working with the Distributed National Electronic Resource (DNER):Standards and Guidelines to Build a National Resource

JISC Information Environment Architecture Standards Framework

The Public Libraries Managing Advanced Networks (PULMAN)Guidelines

6



7/94

table

ofcontents

5



8/94

Acknowledgements 5

1. Introduction 9

1.1. The Purpose of this Document 101.2. The Role of Technical Standards 111.3. The Benefits of Deploying Open Standards 121.4. The Life Cycle Approach 141.5. Requirement Levels 141.6. Summary 15

2. Projects and Planning 17

2.1. Introduction 172.2. Project Phases 182.3. Planning 202.4. People and Roles 212.6. Managing Risks 22

3. Preparing for the digitisation process 23

3.1. Selecting Materials for Digitisation 243.2. Preparing Original Materials 253.3. Staff Training 263.4. In-house Digitisation or Out-sourcing? 26

3.5. Hardware and Software 273.6. The Digitisation Process 29

4. Storage and Management of the Digital Master Material 31

4.1. File Formats 324.1.1. Text Capture and Storage 324.1.2. Still Image Capture and Storage 354.1.3. Video Capture and Storage 384.1.4. Audio Capture and Storage 384.1.5. Multimedia 394.1.6. GIS 40

4.1.7. 3D and Virtual Reality 404.2. Media Choices 444.3. Preservation Strategies 45

5. Metadata, standards and resource discovery 47

5.1. Metadata Standards 475.2.1. Descriptive Metadata 495.2.2. Administrative Metadata 505.2.3. Preservation Metadata 515.2.4. Structural Metadata 525.2.5. Collection-Level Description 53



9/94

5.3. Terms and Conditions of Use 54

5.4. Terminology Standards 545.4. Resource Discovery 555.5. Metadata, Ontologies and the Semantic Web 575.6. OAI-PMH and Metadata Harvesting 595.7. Distributed Searching 605.8. Syndication / Alerting 61

6. Publishing on the Web 63

6.2. Browsers and Protocols 646.3. Accessibility 646.4. Security 65

6.5. Authenticity 666.6. User Authentication 666.7. Search Engine Optimisation 676.8. Current and Future Trends: Web 2.0-3.0 686.8.1 Technologies 696.8.2. User perspectives 706.8.3 Factors to Take into Consideration 70

7. Delivery formats 73

7.1. Identification 737.2. Delivery of Text 74

7.3. Delivery of Still Images 767.4. Delivery of Video 767.5. Delivery of Audio 777.6. Delivery of Virtual Reality 787.7. Delivering Geographic Information 79

8. Reuse and Re-purposing 81

8.1. Learning Resource Creation and Re-use 81

9. Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright, Licencingand Sustainability 83

9.1. Identifying, Recording and Managing IntellectualProperty Rights 84

9.2. Safeguarding Intellectual Property Rights 859.2.1. Creative Commons 859.2.2. Planning for Sustainability 869.2.3. Watermarking and Fingerprinting 86

Appendix 1. About This Document 87Appendix 2. Glossary 89Appendix 3. Business models: Web 2.0-3.0 91



10/94



11/94

9

1. Introduction

These Technical Guidelines have been prepared in the context of a series

of European and national initiatives in recent years to make digitalcontent in Europe more accessible, usable and exploitable. The broadercontext for these Guidelines is the European Commissions i2010 DigitalLibraries initiative, which has as one of its objectives the creation of aEuropean Digital Library aiming to make millions of digital objects easilyaccessible to all European citizens. At national level, modernisation inpublic service delivery and the economy are major drivers for investmentin digitisation and ICT.

The growth and development of new technologies is setting an excitingagenda for innovation and cultural institutions are increasingly aware

of the potential. Growing quantities of digital content and informationare becoming available in increasingly sophisticated forms. Theemergence of web-based communities and services (such as social-networking sites), mobile and Wi-Fi technology offer new opportunitiesfor citizens to create and share personal media and for culturalinstitutions to interact with their audiences. Both individuals andorganisations in todays society are confronted with growing quantitiesof content and increasing demands for knowledge and skills. Thisrequires that multilingual content and information be made moreaccessible and usable over time by humans and machines alike. Thesuccess of the European Digital Library initiative depends in part on theability to unlock its users abilities to access, manipulate and use cultural

heritage resources. Across Europe, international, national, regional andlocal initiatives are investing significant public and private sector fundsin digitisation. The motivations and drivers for these initiatives varywidely but typically all funding programmes aim to maximise theirimpact by requiring that the digital content produced is as widelyuseful, portable and durable as possible in other words resources andcontent should be interoperable.

Ensuring interoperability involves:- consistency of approach to the creation, management and delivery of

digital resources through the effective use of standards, the rules andgood practice guidelines;



12/94

10

1. Introduction

making content available to a range of services through the use of

internet protocols and APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).

The adoption of a shared set of technical standards and guidelinesis often a first step in seeking to ensure conformity within adigitisation programme. This document seeks to provide someguidelines for the use of technical standards. It is intended as aresource for policy-makers, for those implementing fundingprogrammes for the creation of digital cultural content and forthose managing digitisation projects.

1.1 The Purpose of this Document

It is not the intention of this document to impose a singleprescriptive set of requirements to which all projects must conform.It would be impossible to create a single document that capturedall the context-specific requirements of many different programmesand we recognise that different programmes will take differentapproaches to conformance with guidelines. This document seeksto identify areas where there is already a commonality of approachand to provide a core around which context-specific requirementsmight be built. The scope and emphasis is similar to that of theEMII-DCF Data Capture Modeland several of the recommendations inthis document are based directly on those presented in that model.Usage of these guidelines cannot guarantee interoperability: theprecise requirements for usefulness, portability and durability of digitalresources vary from programme to programme and the form in whichstandards are deployed by individual projects will reflect thoserequirements. While the guidelines provided by this document areintended to be generally applicable, each programme operates in acontext and funded projects are required to conform to the constraintsand standards determined by many parties (institutional, programme-wide, sectoral, regional, national, international). For example, publicsector funded programmes often fall within the scope of standardsmandated by national governments.

Within the lifetime of a programme, the technological environmentchanges and standards evolve. Programmes should maintainawareness of all ongoing standards developments relevant to theiroperating context. It will be important to provide an advisory servicefor funded projects to offer guidance on the interpretation andimplementation of standards and guidelines, and to updaterecommendations to reflect significant developments.

Those developing interoperable services should provide guidance andsupport for projects that are making their content available, recognisingthat standards can be implemented in a number of different ways.



13/94

11

1.2 The Role of Technical Standards

The EMII-DCF Framework Report highlights the definition of a standardused by the British Standards Institution (BSI):

A standard is a published specification that establishes a common language,and contains a technical specification or other precise criteria and is designedto be used consistently, as a rule, a guideline, or a definition. Standards areapplied to many materials, products, methods and services. They help tomake life simpler, and increase the reliability and the effectiveness of manygoods and services we use.

Appropriate use of standards in digitisation can deliver the

consistency that makes interoperability possible. It means that aservice operating across resources from multiple providers only needsto handle a limited number of clearly specified formats, interfaces andprotocols. An ever-increasing number of different formats andprotocols would make such a development complex, costly and at bestunreliable, if not impossible. The process of developing standards alsomeans that they capture good practice based on past experience andbring rigour to current practice.

Standards are often defined as either:

de jure formally recognized by a body responsible for settingand disseminating standards, usually developed through thecollaboration of a number of interested parties. Examples arestandards such as the TCP/IP set of protocols, maintained by theInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF) or the Adobe PortableDocument Format 1.7 (PDF) which is now maintained by the ISOstandards body.

de facto not formally recognized by a standards body but widely usedand recognized as a standard by its users. An example is a file formatused by a software product that has a dominant or large share of themarket in a particular area, such as AutoDesks DWG format for CAD

files or Windows.

The openness of a standard is a further consideration. This can refer toa number of characteristics of a standard. The EMII-DCF Framework Report() highlights three aspects of primaryinterest to the user of a standard:

open access (to the standard itself and to documents produced duringits development);

open use (implementing the standard incurs no or little cost for IPR, forexample through licensing); and

1. Introduction



14/94

12

on-going support (driven by requirements of the user not the

interests of the standard provider).

With an open standard the specifications of the formats, interfacesand protocols used by resource providers are openly available andmultiple developers can develop similar tools and services. This meansthat dependency on a single tool or platform can be avoided.

The formal processes associated with the development of de jurestandards are generally regarded as ensuring their openness.

These guidelines give preference to open standards, but in some casesindustry or de facto standards are also considered.

1.3 The Benefits of Deploying Open Standards

Important areas for consideration include:

Interoperability. Content can be accessed seamlessly by users, acrossprojects, across services and across different funding programmes.It should be possible to discover and interact with content inconsistent ways, to use content easily without specialist tools and tomanage it effectively.

Accessibility. Materials are as accessible as possible and are madepublicly available using open standards and non-proprietaryformats. Consideration is given to support for multiple languagecommunities and ensure accessibility for citizens with a range ofdisabilities.

Preservation. The long-term future of materials is secured, so thatthe benefit of the investment is maximized and the cultural recordis maintained in its historical continuity and media diversity.

Security. In a network age it is important that the identity of

content and projects (and, where required, of users) is established;that intellectual property rights and privacy are protected; and thatthe integrity and authenticity of resources can be determined.

Failure to address these areas effectively may have serious consequencesand result in the waste of resources by:

Users - the citizen, the learner, the child. They will waste timeand effort as they cannot readily find or use the most appropriateresources for their needs, because they are not adequatelydescribed, or delivered in a particular way, or require specialist toolsto exploit, or were not captured in a usable form.

1. Introduction



15/94

13

Information providers and managers. Their investment may be

redundant and wasted as their resources fail to be sufficiently used,their products reaching only part of the relevant audience, as theyinvested in non-standard or outmoded practices.

Service providers. They will spend additional time an effort inimplementing interoperable services, to link content together fromdifferent content providers where each project has implementedstandards in different ways.

Funding agencies. They have to pay for redundant, fragmented effort,for the unnecessary repetition of learning processes, for projects thatoperate less efficiently than they should and deploy techniques that

are less than optimal, for content that fails to meet user needs or doesnot meet market requirements.

Creators, authors. Their legacy to the future may be lost.

However, the selection of appropriate open standards is not always easy.Open standards may potentially fail to deliver their potential for a varietyof reasons including:

Complexity. The process for developing standards may result in over-complex standards being developed, which may be difficult to exploit.

Failure to gain marketplace acceptance. Standards may fail to gainacceptance in the market place, with a failure to develop significantnumbers of tools which exploit the standard.

Costs. The costs of deploying open standards may be too expensivefor their intended use.

Lack of user interest. Users may fail to make use of services which arebased on open standards, preferring to continue to use services basedon proprietary solutions.

Enhancement to proprietary solutions. The owners of proprietaryformats may respond to the challenges posed by open standards bymaking their formats more open, reducing the costs associatedwith their use of enhancing the functionality of their formats.

A paper on A Contextual Framework For Standards expands on thechallenges in selecting open standards and describes a framework toassist in the selection of appropriate open standards. See .

In the light of these issues the approach which needs to be taken bycultural heritage organisations can be summarised as institutions should

1. Introduction



16/94

14

seek to make use of open standards, should make their content available

to interoperable services, and must have policies and procedures in placewhich documents their approaches and decisions related to their use ofopen or closed standards.

1.4 The Life Cycle Approach

This structure of this document reflects a life cycle approach to thedigitisation process and (with some modifications) parallels the structureof the Good Practice Handbookdeveloped by the Minerva project.

The document is divided into the following main sections, each reflecting

a stage in that life cycle. In practice, there are relationships anddependencies between activities within these different stages and indeedsome of the stages may not be strictly sequential.

Project Planning Preparing for the Digitisation Process Storage and Management of the Digital Master Material Metadata, standards and resource discovery Publishing on the Web Delivery formats Re-use and re-purposing Intellectual Property and Copyright

1.5 Requirement Levels

The approaches taken to conformance to standards and guidelines varybetween programmes, ranging from encouraging the adoption of goodpractice to mandating conformance to standards as a condition of a grantaward. Typically there are different levels of requirement and it is possibleto distinguish between:

Requirements: Standards that are widely accepted and already incurrent use. Projects must implement standards that are identified as

requirements.

Guidance that represents good practice but for which there may bereasons not to treat it as an absolute requirement, for example,because those standards are still in development. Projects shouldmaintain and demonstrate awareness of these standards and theirpotential applications.

The distinction between requirements and guidance is typically madewithin the context of a particular programme and the intention here is toprovide a foundation document for use within many differentprogrammes.

1. Introduction



17/94

15

Within the context of the standards and guidelines for a specific

programme, however, the authors of guidelines for the use of technicalstandards should distinguish clearly between requirements (if any) andguidance.

Further, in standards documents, the key words must, should and maywhen printed in bold text are used to convey precise meanings aboutrequirement levels:

Must: This word indicates absolute technical requirement with whichall projects must comply.

Should: This word indicates that there may be valid reasons not to

treat this point of guidance as an absolute requirement, but the fullimplications need to be understood and the case carefully weighedbefore it is disregarded. Should has been used in conjunction withtechnical standards that are likely to become widely implementedbut currently are still gaining widespread use.

May: This word indicates that the topic deserves attention, butprojects are not bound by this advice. May has therefore beenused to refer to standards that are currently still being developed.

This vocabulary is based on terminology used in Internet Engineering TaskForce (IETF) documentation.

Those key words are used in the remainder of this document. When re-purposing this document in the context of the standards and guidelinesfor a specific programme, the authors should adapt the requirement levelsspecified in this document to those of their own contexts; authors shouldmake appropriate use of these key word conventions to convey this.

Guidance

IETF RFC 2119 Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate RequirementLevels .

1.6 Summary

This document seeks to provide a core set of guidelines, rather than toattempt to reflect the different requirements of many differentprogrammes and projects. Implementers will need to adapt theseguidelines to the specific context in which they are operating, to select,to customize and to supplement as required. We hope that as a core,the MINERVA Technical Guidelines provide a useful starting point formany different contexts.

1. Introduction



18/94



19/94

17

2. Projects and Planning

2.1 Introduction

A digitisation project has many dimensions and no two digitisationprojects are identical. Each project varies according to the type ofmaterials being digitised, the timescale, budget, staff skills and otherfactors. Some projects are completed in-house; some contract workexternally while others involve collaboration between independentorganizations. Each project will need to develop a project plan to fit itsparticular circumstances.

There are a number of formal methods for managing projects. It can beuseful to follow one of these methods as this can help in transferring

lessons-learnt from one project to the next. Prince2 (PRojects INControlled Environments) is an example of a formal methodology formanaging projects, which is widely used in the UK and alsointernationally. Prince2 is a common sense approach that can be usedon projects of all sizes; the full methodology does not need to beapplied to all projects. Project managers should be aware that Prince2,or a similar methodology, should be applied selectively to meet theneeds of their projects. More information about Prince2 is available at Available2008-05-01.

A project can be defined as a temporary organization that is created to

achieve a specific objective and then disbanded when the work has beencompleted (Prince2). It is triggered by a business need (for example theneed to establish an online catalogue to support enquiry services) andtakes place in the strategic context of an organisation. Projects may formpart of a programme, but each project has:

A life span and a defined life cycle (time) Defined products (specification) Activities to achieve the products A finite amount of resources (budget, equipment etc) An organizational structure with responsibility for managing and

completing the project (people)



20/94

18

Projects may be said to have three primary objectives: quality (fitness

for purpose or specification), cost (the budget) and time (tocompletion). Projects aim to achieve success in all these but projectsponsors or managers may need to identify one of the objectives asbeing more important. For example, if the quality of the digital imagesis the most important objective it may be acceptable to take more timeto complete the work or to spend additional budget on newequipment. People are fundamental to success in any project,providing good management, organization and motivation, and arecentral to balancing the project objectives (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Triangle of Objectives

2.2 Project phases

Typically a project begins life following an initial idea and goes

through a series of operational phases to its completion with thedelivery of a new product (such as an online catalogue) and itsevaluation. The project phases are:

Pre-project preparationThe aim of this phase is to make sure that everything that is needed tostart the project is in place. It may include a feasibility study toevaluate options and recommend an approach. The aim of this phaseis to establish:

The project design which should cover why digitisation is beneficial,what will be digitised, how it will be digitised, the costs and resources

required. How the project is to be funded. The senior management team (project board and project manager). Stakeholders and their quality expectations (user needs and

requirements).

Getting startedThe project begins only once funding is agreed and the go-ahead hasbeen given by the project sponsors. The aim of this phase is to initiate thework of the project and to:

Plan and cost the work.


Quality

People

CostTime



21/94

Refine or update the business case. This should include looking at

long-term maintenance and use issues such as promotion,sustainability, administration and preservation. Define how the stakeholders needs and requirements will be met

(planning for quality). Assess any risks in carrying out the project and how they might be

managed.

Implementing the projectIn this phase the projects activities are carried out, project managers mayestablish:

Tasks or work packages, allocating people, equipment, budget and

time to each. Tasks may be contracted out to external suppliers ordelivered in-house according to the project approach.

Evaluation procedures and quality benchmarks the process ofobtaining feedback from users/stakeholders and measuring the qualityof the products against their needs and requirements.

Monitoring procedures progress, risks, quality etc Reporting procedures to keep sponsors, senior managers and

project team members informed about the projects progress asappropriate.

Dissemination - informing people outside the project about progress.

Most projects are divided into more than one stage. The sponsors

normally review progress as each stage is completed making a go-no godecision before the project may continue to the next stage.

Closing a projectThe final stage involves bringing the project to a formal close. Itsobjectives include:

Checking that all products have been delivered and accepted and thatany external. Notifying any suppliers of the close so they can plan forthe return of resources or the submission of invoices.

Identifying any follow-on actions, for example actions needed tomaintain or support a new service.

Planning for any post-project review. Producing a final report summarizing the projects activities and

covering follow-on actions, lessons-learned. Archiving the projects records.

Guidance:

Framework for Building Good Digital Collections: Initiatives,NISO with IMLS,

Available 2008-09-01

19




22/94

20

PRINCE 2, OGC,


Project Management for a Digitisation Project, TASI


Project management, Good Practice Guide for Developers ofCultural Heritage Web Services, UKOLN


Digitisation: a project planning checklist, AHDS


Managing Successful Programmes, OGC


Project planning, Wikipedia,


2.3 Planning

A good collection-building initiative has a substantial design and planningcomponent, NISO initiatives principle 1.

Planning is crucial to the success of any project or programme - even smallprojects need planning. Planning covers all aspects of the project fromshort and longer-term goals and objectives, constraints (time, costs,personnel, political factors etc.), selection, workflow, methodology,

copyright issues, access, dissemination and evaluation.

A project manager is normally responsible for preparing the initial projectplan during the initiation phase and then for updating the plan at the startof each project stage. Planning a stage involves looking at the details of thework required, identifying specific tasks and estimating the time and costto complete and who will carry out the work. Updating the project plan atregular intervals is important - project plans are dynamic and must reflectthe current situation. Most projects face unexpected challenges or eventswhich may affect the timescales, costs and outcomes of the project.Updating the plan enables these unexpected events to be dealt witheffectively.




23/94

21

There are a number of techniques that can help with project planning. For

example, a Work Breakdown Structure, which describes the tasks andtheir relationships in a hierarchy. A Gant chart illustrates how tasks arescheduled within the project timeline. Network analysis can help to showthe inter-dependencies between tasks. PERT (Programme Evaluation andReview Technique) is a technique for analyzing the tasks involved in aproject and the time required to complete each task. Softwareapplications are available to assist with these techniques. Which you use islikely to depend on the size of the project, the preferences of yourorganization or project sponsor and experience from previous projects.

Guidance

Project management software directory, Project Management Center


2.4 People and Roles

A good digital initiative has an appropriate level of staffing with necessaryexpertise to achieve its objectives. NISO initiatives, principle 2.

People have many different roles in the context of digitisationprojects. All projects, at some point, are likely to need access toexpertise in management and project management, budget and

finance, legal issues, programming and systems administration,selecting content, preparing material for digitisation, digitisation,creating metadata and more. Some roles may be filled by the sameperson, while others require different people. Some people may workon the project full-time, while others for a few hours a month.

Projects may choose between three main strategies for accommodatingthe different roles and skills needed:

in-house staffing, outsourcing or collaboration with one or more partner organizations.

Each strategy has advantages and drawbacks. Whichever is chosen, projectswill need to make sure that staff involved have received adequate trainingin order for them to complete their tasks to an adequate level. Organisationsshould have appropriate training and development plans in place for staff.

Guidance

Handbook on Cost Reduction in Digitisation, section 3.3,MINERVA Plus,





24/94

22

Staff training, TASI


2.6 Managing Risks

Projects should carry out a risk assessment when developing their projectplan. This allows the project manager to identify weak areas or potentialproblems and to plan strategies for coping if the risk actually happens.Types of risk include:

scheduling (not enough time allowed to complete a task)

project scope creep (taking on new unplanned tasks) key skills in existing staff (lacking the skills to complete a task) time to appoint new staff staff leaving the project insufficient documentation of the workflow or methodology equipment failure insufficient IT support problems with commissioning work from external suppliers

Risk management involves identifying the possible risks, assessing theirimpact on the project (him, medium, low), their importance anddeveloping plans to manage (or reduce) the impact of the risk should it

occur. For example, the risk of staff lacking the key skills needed for theproject can be managed through staff training.

Guidance:

Risk Assessment, TASI,


Risk Management and Contingency Planning, AHDS





25/94

23

3. Preparingfor the Digitisation Process

Digitisation is the conversion of analogue materials into a digital format

for use by software, and decisions made at the time of digitisation have afundamental impact on the manageability, accessibility and viability of theresources created.

It is difficult to specify standards for initial data capture fully, asrequirements change over time and different resource types may havequite different requirements. However, projects must demonstrate thatthey have considered the implications of the following issues:

the selection of materials for digitisation the physical preparation of materials for digitisation

the digitisation process

In preparing for digitisation, projects must develop a good knowledge of thecollections to be digitised and the uses to be made of the digital resourcescreated. Projects should be aware of large-scale digitisation initiatives andmethods for cost reduction such as outsourcing, automating digitization andmetadata creation, streamlining workflow, continuous improvement andquality assurance. Projects should be aware of the NISO/IMLS Framework ofGuidance for Building Good Digital Collections Available 2008-09-01.

Preservation concerns apply both to the object being digitised and to

the surrogate digital object when it has been created. Thoseresponsible for projects must weigh-up the risks of exposing originalmaterial to any digitisation process (especially where the items areunique, valuable or fragile) and must discuss the process with thoseresponsible for the care of the originals.

FIAF (the International Federation of Film Archives) has developedguidelines which provide a code of ethics for staff involved inguardianship of the worlds moving image heritage Available 2008-09-15.These guidelines may prove useful for those involved in the manipulationof other formats of cultural heritage resources.



26/94

24

3.1 Selecting Materials for Digitisation

A good digital collection is created according to an explicit collectiondevelopment policy that has been agreed upon and documented before buildingthe collection begins. NISO collections principle 1.

Most digitisation projects involve the selection of material. Institutionsgenerally have a particular set of material in mind when planning aproject, selecting material to meet the needs of their target audiencesand to reflect their overall collection development policy. Material maybe chosen to meet the criteria of an external funding body, to enablecollaboration with another institution or to coincide with a particularanniversary. Mass digitisation projects may involve little selection

below the collection level (for example, digitizing an institutionscollection of 19th century newspapers). At whatever level the selectionis made, projects should reflect their selection policy in their businesscase and project plan (see section 2).

In the case of digitisation on demand, where institutions are offering end-users a service in which they create digital content on request, selectionpolicy is less important.

However selected, a good digital collection consists of digital objects thathave been developed according to a collection development policy, whichaims to make sure that the content is created in line with best practice

guidance and is described, actively managed, available, interoperable andsustainable over time.

Guidance:

Selection Procedures, TASI


Selection and Preparation of Materials, TASI


Framework Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections, NISOwith IMLS,


Creating and Managing Digital Content, CHIN


3. Preparing for the digitisation process



27/94

Handbook on Cost Reduction in Digitisation, Selection andPreparation for Digitisation, MINERVA,


Guidance for selecting materials for digitisation, Joint RLG and NPOPreservation Conference, Guidelines for Digital Imaging,


Selection Guidelines for Preservation, Joint RLG and NPO

Preservation Conference, Guidelines for Digital Imaging,


3.2 Preparing Original Materials

Cataloguing originalsEvery physical object should be catalogued before being digitised. Ifobjects selected for digitisation have not been catalogued, then thisshould be done during the project.

Cataloguing is important for:

Knowledge about and interpretation of the object to be digitised, alsofor preservation purposes.

Contextualisation of the object; the catalogue links the object with thecollection or family of objects it belongs to.

Finding and understanding of the original object and of the digitalresource representing it.

Guidance:

Creating Digital Images, TASI,Available 2008-04-28

The Digitisation Process, UKOLN,


Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitisation, Olga Y Riegar,CLIC, Available 2008-05-01

25




28/94

26

Movement and Handling of Original Materials

The original materials may need to be cleaned or conserved beforedigitisation takes place. The time and cost of any such work should betaken into consideration in the project plan.

Different formats require different approaches to digitisation (forexample, flat objects require a different approach to books or three-dimensional objects). There may be a need to plan for special handling,for example of fragile originals (medieval manuscripts), unsafematerials (nitrate film stock) or very large originals. Projects shouldconsider the format of the original material when establishing theirdigital capture workflow.

Guidance:

Preparation of Materials for Digitisation, Joint RLG and NPOPreservation Conference, Guidelines for Digital Imaging,


Protecting the Physical Form, Joint RLG and NPO PreservationConference, Guidelines for Digital Imaging,


Selection and preparation of Materials, TASI,

Available 2008-09-10.

3.3 Staff Training

The importance of appropriate qualification and skills should berecognised. Staff training may be required for various project phasesincluding:

Handling of originals. Technologies adopted (hardware and software). Cataloguing of objects. Management of project phases.

3.4 In-house Digitisation or Out-sourcing?

Establishing the appropriate environment in which digitisation will takeplace is important. It helps to make sure that the process is effective increating usable digital resources and to keep any damaging effect on theoriginal source materials to the minimum.




29/94

27

The digitisation may be carried out in-house by the institution or it may be

outsourced to an external agency. Project must understand the factorsinvolved in this choice, these include:

The volume of similar original material to be digitised The fragility of the material and the risk of moving it outside the

institution The organization of the physical collection and the associated

catalogues The complexity of the digitisation process The availability of trained staff The availability of hardware and software

Reasons of outsourcing may include cost reduction (for large volumes),access to specialized equipment or practical limitations (space, people,equipment) within an institution. Reasons for carrying out the workin-house may include inability to move a collection, small volumes ofmaterial or the organization of the physical collection.

Guidance

The Digitisation Process, UKOLN,


Handbook on Cost Reduction in Digitisation, Outsourcing,MINERVA,


3.5 Hardware and Software

This document does not provide specific advice on the choice ofdigitisation hardware or software. Projects must demonstrate an

awareness of the range that is available and are advised to consult thelatest reviews and reports before purchasing equipment. The CanadianHeritage Information Network (CHIN) maintains a list of reviews that maybe helpful: Available 2008-09-01.

When selecting digitisation hardware and software, projects must takeinto account characteristics of the originals such as format, size, conditionand the importance of capturing accurately attributes such as colour.

Projects must ensure that the hardware and software selected has thefunctionality to produce digital objects of a quality that meets the




30/94

28

requirements of their expected uses, within acceptable constraints of cost.

The hardware and software must be usable by the relevant project staff.

HardwareProjects must demonstrate an awareness of the range of equipmentavailable, the factors that determine its suitability for use with differenttypes of physical object, and the ways in which it connects with otherhardware such as a computer.

Projects must ensure that equipment selected generates digital objects ofa quality that meets the requirements of their expected uses, withinacceptable constraints of cost.

Project should seek appropriate advice before purchasing digitisationequipment or contracting digitisation services and should carry out anaccurate costing based on the specific requirements of the project.

The choice of the hardware should take into account the physicalcharacteristics of the physical objects: size, brittleness, presence of seals,illumination or precious bindings, (e.g. cradle book scanners formanuscripts with special binding).

Performances and other characteristics declared by vendors may bechecked through reference test charts.

SoftwareProjects must demonstrate an awareness of the use of software in imagecapture and image processing, and the hardware and softwarerequirements of individual software products.

Project must ensure that software provides the functionality required giventhe intended uses of the digital objects created, within acceptableconstraints of cost, and that software is usable by the relevant project staff.

Open source software should be evaluated along with proprietarysoftware packages. Consideration should be given to the EuropeanIDABC programme, national laws or directives promoting the adoption

of open source software by public administrations (e.g. in countriesincluding Italy, Germany, France and the UK). The potential benefits ofopen source software should be balanced against the potential risks,which may include the quality of documentation or the sustainability ofthe development community.

Guidance:

Image Capture: Hardware and Software, TASI





31/94

Open Source Observatory, IDABC,Available 2008-04-28

OSS Watch Briefing Document, JISC OSSWatch,


Free & Open Source Software Portal, UNESCO,


ReferenceHardware and Software Reviews, Canadian Heritage InformationNetwork (CHIN)

Available 2008-09-01.

3.6 The Digitisation Process

The Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI) provides further guidanceon the digitisation process. In addition a series of resources were

developed by the former Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) andthese are still available.

A variety of guidance regarding digitisation is also available in variouspublications. An important recent text is Anne R. Kenney and Oya Y.Riegers, Moving Theory into Practice: digital imaging for libraries and archives(Research Libraries Group, 2000).

Of importance also are the RLG/NPO conference papers collectedtogether in, Guidelines for Digital Imaging (National PreservationOffice, 1998). In addition, OCLC have recently published ShiftingGears: Gearing Up to Get into the flowon scaling up the digitisation of

special collections and materials about public/private massdigitisation agreements.

Guidance:

TASI,


Guides to Good Practice, AHDS,


29




32/94

30

Guidelines for Image Capture, Joint RLG and NPO PreservationConference, Guidelines for Digital Imaging,


Handbook on cost reduction in digitisation, Minerva,


Shifting Gears: Gearing Up to Get Into the Flow 2007,Available 2008-04-23

Public/Private Mass Digitisation Agreements,


Preservation in the Age of Large-Scale Digitisation: A White Paper,Oya Y. Rieger, February, 2008. ISBN 978-1-932326-29-1





33/94

31

4. Storage and Managementof the Digital Master Material

Preservation issues must be considered an integral part of the digital

creation process. Preservation will depend upon documenting all ofthe technological procedures that led to the creation of an object, andmuch critical information can in many cases be captured only at thepoint of creation.

Projects must consider the value in creating a fully documented high-qualitydigital master from which all other versions (e.g. compressed versions foraccess via the Web) can be derived. This will help with the periodic migrationof data and with the development of new products and resources.

It is important to realise that preservation is not just about choosingsuitable file formats or media types. Instead, it should be seen as afundamental management responsibility for those who own and managedigital information content, ensuring its long-term use and re-use. Thisdepends upon a variety of factors that are outside of the digitisationprocess itself, e.g. things like institutional stability, continued funding andthe ownership of intellectual property rights.

However, there are technical strategies that can be adopted during thedigitisation process to facilitate preservation. For example, manydigitisation projects have begun to adopt strategies based on the creationof metadata-rich digital masters. A brief technical overview of the digitalmaster strategy is described in the information paper on the digitisation

process produced for the UK NOF-digitise programme by HEDS.

Guidance:

Preservation Management of Digital Materials Handbook


The Digitisation Process




34/94

32

JISC Standards catalogue


4.1 File Formats

Open standard formats should be used when creating digital resources inorder to maximise access. (Note that file formats for the delivery of digitalrecords to users are outlined in 7.) The use of open file formats will helpwith interoperability, ensuring that resources are reusable and can becreated and modified by a variety of applications. It will also help to avoiddependency on a particular supplier.

However, in some cases there may be no relevant open standards orthe relevant standards may be sufficiently new that conformanttools are not widely available. In some cases therefore, the use ofproprietary formats may be acceptable. However, whereproprietary formats are used, the project should explore amigration strategy that will enable a transition to open standardsto be made in the future.

If open standards are not used, projects shouldjustify their requirementfor use of proprietary formats within their proposals for funding, payingparticular attention to issues of accessibility.

4.1.1 Text Capture and Storage

Character EncodingA character encoding is an algorithm for presenting characters in digitalform by mapping sequences of code numbers of characters (the integerscorresponding to characters in a repertoire) into sequences of 8-bit values(bytes or octets). An application requires an indication about the characterencoding used in a document in order to interpret the bytes which makeup that digital object.

The character encoding used by text-based documents should be

explicitly stated. For XML documents, the character encodingshould usually be recorded in the encoding declaration of the XMLdeclaration.

Standards:

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0.0,defined by: The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0 (Boston, MA, Addison-Wesley, 2003. ISBN 0-321-18578-1)


4. Storage and Management of the Digital Master Material



35/94

33

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0


XHTML 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language


Guidance:

Jukka Korpela, A Tutorial on Character Code Issues


Character Encoding, Wikipedia,


Document FormatsText based content should be created and managed in a structuredformat that is suitable for generating HTML or XHTML documentsfor delivery.

In most cases storing text-based content in an SGML- or XML-based

form conforming to a published Document Type Definition (DTD) orXML Schema will be the most appropriate option. Projects maychoose to store such content either in plain files or within adatabase of some kind. All documents should be validated againstthe appropriate DTD or XML Schema.

Projects should display awareness of and understand the purposeof standardised formats for the encoding of texts, such as the TextEncoding Initiative (TEI), and should store text-based content insuch formats when appropriate. Projects may store text-basedcontent as HTML 4 or XHTML 1.0 (or subsequent versions). Projects

may store text-based content in SGML or XML formats conformingto other DTDs or Schemas, but must provide mappings to arecognised schema.

In some instances, projects may choose to store text-based content usingAdobe Portable Document Format (PDF). For a long time PDF has been aproprietary file format, owned by Adobe, that preserves the fonts,formatting, colours and graphics of the source document. PDF files arecompact and can be viewed and printed with the freely available AdobeAcrobat Reader. However, the PDF format has been standardised andPDF/A is now an ISO Standard for using PDF format for the long-termarchiving of electronic documents.




36/94

34

Standards:

ISO 8879:1986. Information Processing Text and Office Systems Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML),


Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0


Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)


HTML 4.01 HyperText Markup Language


XHTML 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language


PDF/A Competence Center,


Other references:

Portable Document Format (PDF)


Guidance:

AHDS Guide to Good Practice: Creating and Documenting

Electronic Texts


PDF/A, Wikipedia,


TEI, Wikipedia,





37/94

35

4.1.2 Still Image Capture and Storage

Digital still images fall into two main categories: raster (or bit-mapped)images and vector (object-oriented) images. Raster images take the formof a grid or matrix, with each picture element (pixel) in the matrix havinga unique location and an independent colour value that can be editedseparately. Vector files provide a set of mathematical instructions that areused by a drawing program to construct an image.

The digitisation process will usually generate a raster image; vector imagesare usually created as outputs of drawing software.

Raster ImagesWhen creating and storing raster images, two factors need to be

considered these are the file format and the quality parameters.

Raster images should usually be stored in the uncompressed formgenerated by the digitisation process without the application of anysubsequent processing. Raster images must be created using one of thefollowing formats: Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Portable NetworkGraphics (PNG), Graphical Interchange Format (GIF) or JPEG Still PictureInterchange File Format (JPEG/SPIFF).

There are two primary parameters to be considered:

Spatial resolution: hich samples of the original are taken by the capture

device, expressed as a number of samples per inch (spi), or morecommonly just as pixels per inch (ppi) in the resulting digital image.

Colour resolution (bit depth): The number of colours (or levels ofbrightness) available to represent different colours (or shades of grey)in the original, expressed in terms of the number of bits available torepresent colour information, e.g. a colour resolution of 8 bits means256 different colours are available.

In general, photographic images should be created as TIFF images.

The selection of quality parameters required to capture a useful image of

an item is determined by the size of the original, the amount of detail inthe original and the intended uses of the digital image. Digitising a 35mmtransparency will require a higher resolution than a 6x4 print because it issmaller and more detailed; if a required use of an image of a watercolouris the capacity to analyse fine details of brushstrokes, then that requires ahigher resolution than that required to simply display the picture as awhole on a screen.

Images should be created at the highest suitable resolution and bit depththat is both affordable and practical given the intended uses of theimages, and each project must identify the minimum level of quality andinformation density it requires.




38/94

36

As a guide, a resolution of 600 dots per inch (dpi) and a bit depth of

24-bit colour or 8-bit greyscale should be considered for photographicprints. A resolution of 2400 dpi should be considered for 35 mm slidesto capture the increased density of information.

In some cases, for example when using cheaper digital cameras, it maybe appropriate to store images in JPEG/SPIFF format as an alternative toTIFF. This will result in smaller, but lower quality images. Such imagesmay be appropriate for displaying photographs of events etc. on a Website but it is not suggested that such cameras are used for large-scaledigitisation of content.

Standards:

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF)


Joint Photographic Expert Group (JPEG)


JPEG Still Picture Interchange File Format (SPIFF)


Guidance:

TASI: Advice: Creating Digital Images


JPEG, Wikipedia,


Tagged Image File Format, Wikipedia,


Graphic non-vector imagesComputer-generated images such as logos, icons and line drawingsshould normally be created as PNG or GIF images at a resolution of 72dpi. (N.B. Images resulting from the digitisation of physical linedrawings should be managed as described in the previous section.)




39/94

37

Standards:

Portable Network Graphics (PNG)


Guidance:

Portable Network Graphics, Wikipedia,


Vector imagesVector images consist of multiple geometric objects (lines, ellipses,polygons, and other shapes) constructed through a sequence ofcommands or mathematical statements to plot lines and shapes. Vectorgraphics should be created and stored using an open format such asScalable Vector Graphics (SVG), an XML language for describing suchgraphics. SVG drawings can be interactive and dynamic, and arescalable to different screen display and printer resolutions. Use of theproprietary Macromedia SWF format may also be appropriate (see4.1.5 Multimedia below).

Standards:

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)


Other references:

File Format Specification FAQ


Guidance:

Vector graphics, Wikipedia


SVG, Wikipedia





40/94

38

4.1.3 Video Capture and Storage

Video should usually be stored in the uncompressed form obtainedfrom the recording device without the application of any subsequentprocessing. Video should be created at the highest suitable resolution,colour depth and frame rate that are both affordable and practicalgiven its intended uses, and each project must identify the minimumlevel of quality it requires.

Video should be stored using the uncompressed RAW AVI format,without the use of any codec, at a frame size of 720x576 pixels, a framerate of 25 frames per second, using 24-bit colour. PAL colour encodingshould be used.

Video may be created and stored using the appropriate MPEG format(MPEG-1, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4) or the proprietary formats Microsoft WMF,ASF or Quicktime.

Standards:

The reference website for MPEG:


Guidance:

MPEG, Wikipedia


4.1.4 Audio Capture and Storage

Audio should usually be stored in the uncompressed form obtained fromthe recording device without the application of any subsequent processingsuch as noise reduction. Audio should be created and stored as anuncompressed format such as Microsoft WAV or Apple AIFF. 24-bit stereosound at 48/96 KHz sample rate should be used for master copies. This

sampling rate is suggested by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and theInternational Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA).

Audio may be created and stored using compressed formats such as MP3,WMA, RealAudio, or Sun AU formats.

Standards:

MP3, Fraunhofer IIS,





41/94

The Ogg Encapsulation Format Version 0, RFC 3533,Available 2008-04-28

The Ogg container format, Xoph.org


Guidance:

Guidelines on the Production and Preservation of Digital AudioObjects, IASA Technical Committee, ISBN 87-990309-1-8


The Safeguarding of the Audio Heritage: Ethics, Principles andPreservation Strategy, IASA Technical Committee, ISBN 91-976192-0-5


Comparison of audio codecs, Wikipedia


Ogg, Wikipedia


MP3, Wikipedia


AVI, Wikipedia


AIFF, Wikipedia

Available 2008-05-18AU, Wikipedia

AU, Wikipedia


WMA, Wikipedia


39




42/94

40

4.1.5 Multimedia

Multimedia formats can be used to provide integration of text, image,sound and video resources.

The W3C SMIL format may be an appropriate open standard formultimedia delivered over the Web.

The Macromedias proprietary SWF format (often referred to as Flash)may be a suitable medium for multimedia, however projects shouldexplore a migration strategy so that they can move to more openformats once they become widely deployed. In addition, the use oftext within the SWF format should be avoided, in order to support thedevelopment of multilingual versions.

The timed text (TT) authoring format is a content type thatrepresents timed text media for the purpose of interchange amongauthoring systems. The Distribution Format Exchange Profile is aW3C candidate recommendation and may be an appropriate openstandard for the exchange of timed text information (such as sub-titles or captions).

Standards:

Synchronized Multimedia


Macromedia Flash File Format (SWF) Specification License,Macromedia,


Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 Distribution FormatExchange Profile (DFXP), W3C Candidate Recommendation 16November 2006,

Guidance:

SMIL, Wikipedia


SWF, Wikipedia





43/94

41

4.1.6 GIS

GIS (Geographic Information Systems) can be used to integrate, store, edit,manage and present data which are spatially referenced (linked to location).The data that may be integrated in a GIS include raster images (e.g. digitisedhistoric maps), vector images (e.g. maps captured using drawing software ordata captured in the field using electronic measuring instruments), text andnumeric data (e.g. databases describing the attributes of a location).

Geographic Information should be created and stored using non-proprietary and open data formats (such as the OpenGIS GeographyMarkup Language (GML)) and standards maintained by the OpenGeospatial Consortium (OGC) and ISO; there are over 40 ISO standards

which address a diverse range of functions. Use of proprietary dataformats may be appropriate however projects should explore amigration strategy to open formats.

Standards:

ISO/TC 112


Open Geospatial Consortium standards and specifications


Guidance:

Geographic Information Systems, Wikipedia


GIS File formats, Wikipedia


4.1.7 3D and Virtual Reality

3D models consist of a collection of points in three-dimensional spaceconnected (by lines, triangles, curves or surfaces) to represent complexgeometric objects. Models may represent either real-world objects,reconstructions based on the remains of a monument or building orvirtual worlds created through the imagination of a designer.

3D scanners, electronic survey equipment or photogrammetry may beused to capture the geometry of real-world objects, buildings ormonuments. The point data that is produced by these techniques is then




44/94

42

imported into 3D software as a 3D model. Data may be combined to

represent complex shapes, such as the inside and outside of a building.CAD software is widely used for architectural objects and archaeologicalmonuments, but a wide range of other 3D software packages is available.MeshLab is an open-source software programme for processing 3Dmeshes and data produced by 3D scanning.

3D software packages allow users to create and alter 3D models. Forexample, a reconstruction can be created by first importing point datacaptured from an archaeological monument and then using the softwareto add the missing portions (of walls or other elements). The software canthen be used to create a realistic appearance by allowing surfaces to berendered with images and lighting effects to be applied. 3D software is

also used by designers, for example to produce models of new objects orto create virtual worlds.

Most 3D software packages enable models to be exported as a file forimport into other applications (such as Virtual Reality). Animations andvideos may be created.

Open standards are not well developed for 3D capture or 3D graphics.Laser scanners produce data in proprietary formats and the same is truefor 3D software packages, including the open-source packages likeMeshlab. Projects may choose to store CAD content using the proprietarydwg (Drawing) format; this Autodesk format has become a defacto

standard and is supported by other applications and also by the OpenDesign Alliance. Projects may choose to store CAD data using theproprietory dxf (Drawing Exchange Format), AutoCAD now publishesthe specifications for the dxf versions used in its CAD software whichsupports the import of dxf files into other packages.

Virtual Reality integrates 3D models with text, sound and images to createcomputer-simulated environments in which users can interact (with agame, a virtual world or in some cases with each other). Virtual X3D is anISO standard for virtual reality that has been developed by the Web 3Dconsortium from Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) and whichprovides a system for the storage, retrieval and playback of real time

graphics content embedded in applications. Virtual Reality models shouldbe created using the X3D format.

COLLADA (COLLAborative Design Activity) defines an open standard XMLschema for exchanging 3D files between 3D software applications such asMaya, 3ds Max, MeshLab, Blender and others. COLLADA is used as thenative format by a number of applications, for example Google Earth.Projects may use COLLADA with X3D to develop 3D applications.

Projects should be aware that with any proprietary solution there arepotential costs and should explore a migration strategy that will enable afuture transition to open standards.




45/94

In some cases, it may be appropriate for cultural institutions to use

managed 3-D virtual worlds (such as Second Life) to engage newaudiences and display digital assets but it is not suggested that suchenvironments are used for the creation or preservation of digital masters.

Standards:

Adobe Director and Shockwave


COLLADA, Khronos,


MeshLab


VRML


Virtual X3D


Guidance:

CAD: a Guide to Good Practice, ADS


Creating and Using Virtual Reality, VADS


Web3D ConsortiumAvailable 2008-05-02

Open Design Alliance Available 2008-05-02

Developing Web Applications with COLLADA and X3D, Khronos,


43




46/94

44

COLLADA, Wikipedia


DWG, Wikipedia


DXF, Wikipedia


X3D, Wikipedia


3D computer graphics software, Wikipedia


MeshLab, Wikipedia


4.2 Media Choices

Different digital storage media have different software and hardwarerequirements for access and different media present different storage andmanagement challenges. The threats to continued access to digital mediaare two-fold:

The physical deterioration of, or damage to, the medium itself Technological change resulting in the obsolescence of the hardware

and software infrastructure required to access the medium

The resources generated during digitisation project will typically be storedon the hard disks of one or more file servers, and also on portable storagemedia. At the time of writing, the most commonly used types of portablemedium are magnetic tape and optical media (CD-R and DVD).

Portable media chosen should be of good quality and purchased fromreputable brands and suppliers, and new instances should always bechecked for faults. Media should be handled, used and stored inaccordance with their suppliers instructions.

Projects should consider creating copies of all their digital resources metadata records as well as the digitised objects - on two different types of




47/94

45

storage medium. At least one copy should be kept at a location other than

the primary site to ensure that they are safe in the case of any disasteraffecting the main site. All transfers to portable media should be logged.

Media should be refreshed (i.e. the data copied to a new instance of thesame medium) on a regular cycle within the lifetime of the medium.Refreshment activity should be logged.

Guidance:

Preservation Management of Digital Materials


Using CD-R and DVD-R for Digital Preservation, TASI,


4.3 Preservation Strategies

There are three main technical approaches to digital preservation:technology preservation, technology emulation and data migration. Thefirst two focus on the technology used to access the object, eithermaintaining the original hardware and software or using currenttechnology to replicate the original environment. The work on persistentarchives based on the articulation of the essential characteristics of theobjects to be preserved may also be of interest.

Migration strategies focus on the maintaining the digital objects in a formthat is accessible using current technology. In this scenario, objects areperiodically transferred from one technical environment to another newerone, while as far as possible maintaining the content, context, usabilityand functionality of the original. Such migrations may require the copyingof the object from one medium or device to a new medium or deviceand/or the transformation of the object from one format to a new format.

Some migrations may require only a relatively simple formattransformation; a migration to a very different environment may involvea complex process with considerable design effort.

Projects should understand the requirements for a migration-basedpreservation strategy and should develop policies and guidelines tosupport its implementation.

The capture of metadata is a critical part of a migration-based preservationstrategy (see 5.2.3). Metadata is required to support the management of theobject and of the migration process, but furthermore, migration inevitablyleads, at least in the longer term, to some changes in, or losses of, original




48/94

46

functionality. Where this is significant to the interpretation of the object,

users will rely on metadata about the migration process- and about theoriginal object and its transformations - to provide some understanding ofthe functionality provided in the original technological environment.

Guidance:

Preservation Management of Digital Materials Handbook


The State of Digital Preservation: An International Perspective


Planets - Preservation and Long-term Access through NETworkedServices





49/94

47

5. Metadata, Standardsand Resource Discovery

Metadata can be defined literally as data about data, but the term is

normally understood to mean structured data about resources that can beused to help support a wide range of operations on those resources. Aresource may be anything that has identity, and a resource may be digitalor non-digital. Operations might include, for example, disclosure anddiscovery, resource management (including rights management) and thelong-term preservation of a resource. For a single resource differentmetadata may be required to support these different functions.

It may be necessary to provide metadata describing several classes ofresource, including

the physical objects digitised;

the digital objects created during the digitisation process and stored asdigital masters;

the digital objects derived from these digital masters for networkeddelivery to users;

new resources created using these digital objects; collections of any of the above

5.1 Metadata Standards

Good metadata conforms to community standards in a way that is appropriateto the materials in the collection, users of the collection, and current and potentialfuture uses of the collection NISO Metadata Principle 1 and Principle 5

Good metadata supports the long-term management, curation, andpreservation of objects in collections.

Metadata is sometimes classified according to the functions it is intendedto support. In practice, individual metadata schemas often supportmultiple functions and overlap the categories below.

The curatorial communities responsible for the management of differenttypes of resources have developed their own metadata standards tosupport operations on those resources. The museum community hascreated the SPECTRUM and CDWA standards to support the managementof museum objects; the archive community has developed the ISAD(G),



50/94

48

ISAAR(CPF) and EAD standards to provide for the administration and

discovery of archival records; and the library community uses the MARCfamily of standards to support the representation and exchange ofbibliographic metadata.

Project should display awareness of the requirements of community/domain-specific metadata standards.

Projects should ensure that the metadata schema(s) adopted is (are) fullydocumented. This documentation should include detailed cataloguingguidelines listing the metadata elements to be used and describing howthose elements are to be used to describe the types of resource createdand managed by the project. Such guidelines are necessary even when astandard metadata schema is used in order to explain how that schema is

to be applied in the specific context of the project.

Standards:

SPECTRUM, the UK Museum Documentation Standard, 2nd Edition


Getty Research Institute, Categories for the Description of Works ofArt (CDWA)


International Standard for Archival Description (General) (ISAD(G)).Second Edition.


International Standard Archival Authority Record for CorporateBodies, Persons and Families. Second Edition.


Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

Available 2008-04-28Machine Readable Cataloguing (MARC): MARC 21


Guidance:

Online Archive of California Best Practice Guidelines for EncodedArchival Description (OAC BPG EAD), Version 2.0


5. Metadata, standards and resource discovery



51/94

Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections,Metadata principles, NISO with IMLS


5.2.1 Descriptive Metadata

Descriptive metadata is used for discovery and interpretation of the digitalobject.

Projects should show understanding of the requirements for descriptivemetadata for digital objects.

To support the discovery of their resources by a wide range of otherapplications and services, projects must capture and store sufficientdescriptive metadata to be able to generate a metadata description foreach item using the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set (DCMES) in itssimple/unqualified form. The DCMES is a very simple descriptive metadataschema, developed by a cross-disciplinary initiative and designed tosupport the discovery of resources from across a range of domains. Itdefines fifteen elements to support simple cross-domain resourcediscovery: Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Publisher, Contributor, Date,Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage and Rights.

This requirement does not mean that only simple DC metadata should berecorded for each item: rather, the ability to provide simple DC metadatais the minimum requirement to support resource discovery. In practice,that simple DC metadata will probably be a subset of a richer set of item-level metadata.

To support discovery within the cultural heritage sector, projects shouldalso consider providing a metadata description for each item conformingto the DC.Culture schema.

Projects should show awareness of any additional requirements fordescriptive metadata (for example a requirement to provide spatial

coverage and temporal coverage separately), and may need to captureand store additional descriptive metadata to meet those requirements.

Standards:

Dublin Core Metadata Element Set, Version 1.1


DC.Culture


49

5. Metadata, standards and resource discovery



52/94

50

Guidance:

Using Dublin Core


5.2.2 Administrative Metadata

Administrative metadata is used for managing the digital object andproviding more information about its creation and any constraintsgoverning its use. This might include:

Technical metadata, describing technical characteristics of a digital

resource; Source metadata, describing the object from which the digital resource

was produced; Digital provenance metadata, describing the history of the operations

performed on a digital object since its creation/capture; Rights management metadata, describing copyright, use

restrictions and license agreements that constrain the use of theresource.

Technical metadata includes information that can only be capturedeffectively as part of the digitisation process itself: for example,information about the nature of the source material, about the

digitisation equipment used and its parameters (formats, compressiontypes, etc.), and about the agents responsible for the digitisationprocess. It may be possible to generate some of this metadata from thedigitisation software used.

There is, however, no single standard for this type of metadata. Forimages, a committee of the US National Information StandardsOrganization (NISO) has produced a draft data dictionary of technicalmetadata for digital still images.

Projects should show understanding of the requirements foradministrative metadata for digital objects.

Documents

MINERVA Technical Guidelines for Digital Cultural Content Creation Programmes V2.0-2008.pdf